`ord` requires Bitcoin Core's transaction index and rest interface.
To configure your Bitcoin Core node to maintain a transaction
index, add the following to your `bitcoin.conf`:
```
txindex=1
```
Or, run `bitcoind` with `-txindex`:
```
bitcoind -txindex
```
Details on creating or modifying your `bitcoin.conf` file can be found
[here](https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/blob/master/doc/bitcoin-conf.md).
Syncing the Bitcoin Blockchain
------------------------------
To sync the chain, run:
```
bitcoind -txindex
```
…and leave it running until `getblockcount`:
```
bitcoin-cli getblockcount
```
agrees with the block count on a block explorer like [the mempool.space block
explorer](https://mempool.space/). `ord` interacts with `bitcoind`, so you
should leave `bitcoind` running in the background when you're using `ord`.
The blockchain takes about 600GB of disk space. If you have an external drive
you want to store blocks on, use the configuration option
`blocksdir=<external_drive_path>`. This is much simpler than using the